Mucus In Stool, Symptom Of Celiac Disease?

[mama2two]

From what i have read, it seems like many children that present with symptoms of celiac disease, are experiencing diarrhea. well, my daughter has not had this, instead she has abdominal cramping and visits the bathroom often, but not with diarrhea, instead she has mucus in her stool, sometimes it's just mucus that she is passing, once my husband wiped her after using the bathroom (she's four), and he said it looked like someone had just poured some oil in the toilet. we are on a gluten free diet as per our pedi's recommendation, her initial lab tests were inconclusive, and she has had a positive response to the diet. on sunday, we were away from home and ate at a restraunt and she had those captain's wafers crackers and fried chicken strips and yesterday and this morning she started having mucus again. i was just wondering if anyone else had symptoms like this?

[JennyC]

Oily stools with mucus is a classic symptom of Celiac disease. It is true that many people with celiac disease have diarrhea, but others have constipation, therefore diarrhea is not a requirement for diagnosis. If she responds well to the diet then I would keep her on it because that is direct proof that gluten is at least part of her problem. Keep in mind that those who are newly diagnosed with celiac disease are also initially lactose intolerant because the villi that are flattened are the same cells that produce lactase (the enzyme that digests lactose).

[JenKuz]

  JennyC said:

Oily stools with mucus is a classic symptom of Celiac disease. It is true that many people with celiac disease have diarrhea, but others have constipation, therefore diarrhea is not a requirement for diagnosis. If she responds well to the diet then I would keep her on it because that is direct proof that gluten is at least part of her problem. Keep in mind that those who are newly diagnosed with celiac disease are also initially lactose intolerant because the villi that are flattened are the same cells that produce lactase (the enzyme that digests lactose).

When i first started having symptoms, i had this problem. Stools were loose, mucously, fatty, full of undigested food, and I always felt very feverish and uncomfortable passing them....would sit on the toilet for long periods, not constipated, but clammy and in pain.....

[mama2two]

  JenKuz said:

When i first started having symptoms, i had this problem. Stools were loose, mucously, fatty, full of undigested food, and I always felt very feverish and uncomfortable passing them....would sit on the toilet for long periods, not constipated, but clammy and in pain.....

this is often how my daughter does, she goes to the bathroom several times a day, and when her stomach is upset, like when she has had gluten, she says, "my stomach hurts, but my poo won't come out". only on when she started with this problem, I brought a stool sample to the pedi, they tested it and I remember they said it showed split fat, and the pedi told me he was not sure what this meant, that he would have to research it further, but he was thinking a malabsorbtion syndrome of some sort. He does have two other patients, brothers, who have celiac disease and their father has it. When I told him how my husbands stomach did ( he would eat oats every morning with a mashed banana and then after several days he would develop gas, bloating and diarrhea everyday around 1pm) He said he must be allergic to it. The Dr thought of celiac disease when he heard this, but last time we spoke, after recieving inconclusive lab work on her, he told me he really did not think she had celiac disease. But he said try to diet this summer when you can control what she eats. those last few weeks of school almost everyday, they gave them cakes for snack time, she often did not eat this, but if she did, it upset her stomach. My daughter lives on carbs, I am trying to change this, but it is not easy. We did have to cut out cow's milk, she is on almond milk, but she is starting to tolerate it again. Because we have never gotten, and sure diagnosis of celiac dx, I keep thinking maybe it's not that, but all the symptoms seem to point toward that, and her Positive diet response has been the most convincing! I plan to pack her lunch for this school year, that will be a challenge for me, but considering all she ate last year was the bread, cake and cookies that were served to her, if i serve her these in a gluten-free form that will be better, but I do plan to fix her a more balanced diet, I just hope she eats it. Thanks for sharing your story, it helps to hear that someone else had some of the same symptoms as My daughter. It is wonderful how everyone is so helpful, and you get a sense of genuine concern from many of the members here. thanks to you all!!

[JenKuz]

I found myself hungry but nauseaus at the same time through much of the first year and a half of symptoms. I ate a lot of carbs, craving cakes and whatnot before I cut out wheat, and then potatoes, rice, etc. I think this was because of the fat malabsorption. I had a fairly high score on the fecal fat test, as well, and given that my body was not absorbing fats, I think I needed some extra form of energy in order not to starve.

Here are my experiences. Rice did me well. Rice puddings and things like that were very good on my stomach, and I lived on risottos for a long while.

At one point I went on the "specific carbohydrate diet" which really helped a lot. It was hard the first couple of days, because my body really need energy, but I fed it lots of honey, bananas, and eggs and other protein, and before long I was able to digest unsaturated fats with ease. Even now I get sick if I eat too much transfat or saturated fat. Olive oil, avocados, and milk fat go down fine, though (the milk fat is moderate, almost all from yogurt). Butter and red meat made me feel too awful to describe, and still do to some extent, so I only eat them when I have a presumably iron-associated craving for beef.

[chrissy]

anything that irritates the intestines can cause mucous in the bowel movements. if the gluten free diet doesn't improve things, you might want to do some more investigating.

[sjust]

We suspect Celiac with my little one because of the green mucus stools. When I first went gluten-free they went away but are back now and can't seem to get rid of them so I don't know if we have found all of the problem. I am also off all dairy.

Sarah

[chrissy]

sarah, are you talking about a nursing baby? have you eliminated soy, too?

[sjust]

I am talking about a nursing baby and yes soy has been out for 3 months now. We also eliminated dairy, eggs, nuts, citrus, beans and most corn.

[janelyb]

mama2two,

Do you know exactally what the results were of the test. When they say inconclusive that means some of them were negative but one was positive.

My son has a world full of severe constipation and it all began at 7 months when baby foods/snacks were introduced. His constipation continued and then adding to it was ab destention, bloating,gas, pain, low weight /growth.....

Anyways just recently this January (he was 3.5 yrs old) the doctor ran a celiac panel. I was told it came back inconclusive as well. I specifically asked what tests were given and what the results were. Turns out all were negative except his antiglidian IgG. This IgG was very high positive. I asked to rerun the test and we got the same results about a month later. He had already been cut back by about half off gluten so I don't know if this is why more didn't come back +.

Anyways the doctor said the IgG has a high false + rate, which I felt was a load of baloney and I didn't listen to her and went ahead and stayed 100% gluten-free and later also casein free. It wasn't until my visit today when this same doctor admitted to me the + IgG test is an early indicator of celiac. This after we had already been gluten free for nearly 3 months. The only way to know for sure is biopsy, but for us the diet response was enough proof.

So if I were you I'd get a copy of the tests and bring them back here for many of the others to interept.

On the mucus part sorry I haven't had to deal with that since we are on the other end of no poop coming out.

[EmmaQ]

I thought I would post and revive this one... The OP did not respond back w the tests results for us to know why they were inconclusive. I hope she can do that.

But here is what happened to us. The TTG IgA was run, it came back negative. The total serum IgA was low, but not below normal for this labs qualifying assay. We had a specialist who used a different lab run the entire panel with gene markers. This new lab did the total IgA serum in a range based on age, this showed our child was IgA deficient thus why the original tests came back negative. The IgG was positive, but that was inconclusive to the first specialist, but not another we took him to.

Different doctors, different opinions, different quality of labs it all just is really draining trying to get the proper dx for your child.

[ssmith6646]

I was diagnosed with celiac sprue about 6 years ago. I suffered all my life with cramping  and feeling like i always had to go to the bathroom...but most of the time not everything would evacuate. My symptoms after ingesting gluten, are small amounts at a time and allot of mucous mixed in with bowel movements.